This Goosebumps entry is a pretty straight forward play on the boy who cried wolf, just with a monster instead. In this review, we’ll see who the real monsters are… Probably the actual monsters.

Synopsis:

Lucy Dark is always scaring her younger brother Randy with monster stories. Unfortunately, this isn’t an origin story of Randy Marsh. They live in a town called Timberland Falls.

Lucy and her brother are outside, she tells Randy about the Timberland Toe-Biter. A daytime monster, extra spooky. She digs her toes into the ground and pretends the monster got her toes, Randy gets scared and runs inside.

Lucy keeps making up monster stories as Randy runs away. This is when Lucy is snuck up on by her friend Aaron, who she mistakes for a monster, seems like she may have scared herself.

Lucy tries to convince Aaron she saw another monster. This causes the two of them to go over to a tree, which Lucy uses a broom to knock down a bird’s nest. Somehow Aaron thinks this is a monster for a second.

Afterwards, Lucy is lectured by her mom about making up monster stories. This doesn’t persuade Lucy from making up more monster stories. I’m beginning to see a trend.

Lucy heads over to the library, since she’s involved with the reading rangers. The local librarian is named Mr. Mortman. She sees him once a week during the summer to get a new book. The library is described as a haunted house.

Lucy uses roller skates to get to the library, this clearly sets the book in the 90s. She isn’t the best reader, as she hasn’t finished the book she’s returning, but she’s happy to grab another one.

After leaving, Lucy somehow forgets her skates at the library. She returns for them, but the library is closed, so she sneaks in. Lucy decides to spy on Mr. Mortman. As to be expected, he turns into a monster, a monster librarian.

Mr. Mortman is a bit peckish as he begins to eat flies. As some know, librarians or people in a library don’t make crazy money, so free food is free food. Lucy becomes scared and runs away.

When Lucy arrives home, she tells her parents about the monster. As to be expected, they don’t believe her. At dinner, her parents tell her to stop talking about monsters.

A week later, Lucy goes to the library to get a new book. Lucy chats with Mr. Mortman about Frankenstein, which isn’t the most subtle call out.

Lucy decides to hide in the library until after closing. She watches as Mr. Mortman eats more flies and a turtle. After witnessing this, she decides to leave, but the doors are locked from the inside. Huh?

Mr. Mortman hears or maybe has seen some of this, so he goes after Lucy, asking who’s in the library. Lucy in some unexplained way is able to now open the doors and escape, maybe she figured out the fact doors don’t lock from the inside, especially at a public building.

Lucy tells Aaron what she saw, of course he doesn’t believe her. At home Randy doesn’t believe Lucy either. After this brief conversation, Lucy is jump scared by Randy.

This is when Mr. Mortman shows up at her house with her bag. Mr. Mortman questions Lucy, but after questioning her, he still doesn’t know who saw him in monster mode. Luckily Lucy gets her bag back.

Almost as soon as Mr. Morton is gone, her parents arrive home. She tells her parents what happened at the library, but they don’t believe her. Later, Lucy is able to convince Aaron to stay at the library after it closes, which she does by bribing him.

The next day Lucy goes to meet up with Aaron. However, upon arriving at his home, she’s told by his brother Burt he’s at the dentist. Lucy decides to bring a camera and go alone.

After closing Mr. Mortman turns again. This time he eats flies and moths. Lucy takes photos, which is a semi-bad idea, as she will surely have proof now, but she’s also drawn the attention of Mr. Mortman.

Mr. Mortman chases after her. Lucy name drops Dead Meat after knocking over a cart. The good news is Mr. Mortman gets distracted by ringing phone. This allows Lucy to escape.

Later, Lucy asks her dad to take her to the mall to develop the photos. Her dad agrees and to make it worth it for the whole family, they go out for Chinese food. After dinner they go to pick up the developed photos, which somehow costs $14? Her dad pays for the photos.

Upon looking at the photos, Mr. Mortman isn’t in any of them.

The next evening, Lucy confronts Aaron. Aaron apologizes and says he will come along to spy on Mr. Mortman. They follow Mr. Mortman home.

At Mr. Mortman’s house, Lucy uses a wheelbarrow to look into his window. She thinks he sees her, but he doesn’t, sure. Mr. Mortman eats a snail.

While outside Lucy falls off of the wheelbarrow, which catches Mr. Morton’s attention. She asks Aaron for help, but he’s running away. Aaron says he saw Mr. Mortman.

Mr. Mortman sees Lucy and catches up with her after she starts to run away. He acts like nothing is wrong and tries to gaslight Lucy, but she doesn’t fall for it and runs away.

Lucy catches up with Aaron, but now Aaron says he didn’t see anything.

When Lucy gets home and tells her parents, they don’t believe her, still.

The next day at the library, Lucy sees Mr. Mortman. He makes Lucy stay until after closing, since he supposedly has something to tell her. Too bad Lucy didn’t see through this lie. Mr. Mortman reveals he knows that she knows his secret and won’t let her leave.

Lucy runs away. During her escape she knocks over a card catalogue. Turns out this is Mr. Mortman’s secret weakness as he is forced to clean up the cards instead of chasing her.

Upon escaping, Lucy runs into Aaron. Aaron saw the whole thing and was also in the library.

Getting home Aaron backs up Lucy’s story, which causes her parents to finally believe her, most parents wouldn’t believe this though, because who would believe two children talking about monsters.

Lucy’s parents tell her that they’re inviting Mr. Mortman over for dinner.

A day later, Mortman is over for dinner. However, Mr. Mortman was woefully misinformed, as he is the dinner. Mr. Mortman is eaten, by the parents.

This is when it’s revealed Lucy and Randy’s parents are monsters. They want to keep other monsters out of town, since too many monsters, and they could be forced out of town.

The book ends with Lucy telling Randy another monster story.

Review:

Turns out my introduction was accurate, as the real monsters were the monsters. This book isn’t my favorite I’ve read. The title suggests this Goosebumps book will be repetitive and it is.

The main problems with this book are with the characters. The story centers around Lucy, but Lucy is a pretty boring character, Aaron and Randy don’t add much to the story, and the parents aren’t much help to the story either. The story also has a bit of a sudden ending, which the ending feels rushed.

There are good aspects of this book as well. Mr. Mortman is a good villain, even if he reads as a bit of a doofus, like how are you stopped by catalogue cards during a chase? There are some pretty cool monster descriptions. Despite the half-baked twist, it still works in some ways.

Overall, I’ll give this Goosebumps entry a 6/10. Maybe, I’m being a bit generous on this one, but it’s not too bad.

Twist ending:

The Dark family are all monsters and eat Mr. Mortman, who doesn’t seem to deserve that, he wasn’t hurting anyone. I’m sure with some conflict resolution everything would have worked out.

Memorable line:

“Toe-Biters are just so hard to see.” It’s broad daylight, are they invisible?

Bonus: “But I like big meatballs.”

Bad parenting:

The parents eat the librarian. ‘Nuff said.

Random References:

Disney, Archie, Reading Rangers, Super Nintendo, Anne of Green Gables, Huckleberry Finn, White Fang, and Frankenstein. Fun fact, the monster isn’t named Frankenstein, but instead it was the scientist’s name. Maybe Mr. Mortman’s name is actually monster and his creator’s name is Mr. Mortman, the world may never know.

Tropes in book:

Character is 12, sibling pair, pranks, twist ending, crazy cliffhangers, sibling jump scare, and nobody believes a character’s crazy story.

TV tie in:

The Goosebumps tie-in episode doesn’t add much but does remove a lot. It’s quite streamlined with Lucy barely being in the library at all. Mr. Mortman is also in the episode more and is aware that Lucy knows from almost the beginning.

The biggest issues are also found in the episode. The fact that Mr. Mortman knows from near the beginning removes a lot of the ambiguity. Also, we never see Mr. Mortman’s home or him eat turtles or moths.

I can’t find any additional positives than what is present in the book. Except, for whatever reason, the family eats plain meatballs in the episode as snacks. Who does this? No sauce? No pasta? Not even having them on a sandwich?

Overall, the Goosebumps episode adaptation gets a 5/10. It’s not bad, but not great.

Memorable episode line:

“Keep running little one. I love fast food.” This is why Mr. Mortman doesn’t eat fast food much, he can never catch it.

Come back soon for more Goosebumps fun and reviews.

To read the last Goosebumps review: https://goosebumpsblogger.com/goosebumps-7-night-of-the-living-dummy/